Too polluting

• The Third Runway MDP does not clearly state the extent of air pollution from Third Runway flights that will impact airport-adjacent communities. Air pollutants can include hydrocarbons, nitrogen oxide, and particulate matter (see Aviation exhaust pollution, air quality, and impacts on Human Health – Melbourne Airport 3rd runway expansion).

• The MDP fails to address the health impacts from this pollution on these communities.

• The health study, promised by Melbourne Airport, that may or may not include an assessment of these impacts, has not been made public, preventing any peer review.

• The MDP contains no plan to adequately protect airport-adjacent communities from ultra-fine particulate matter from aircraft engines.

PFAS, or per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances, are manufactured chemicals used in products that resist heat, oil, stains and water. They are used in fire-fighting foams, including at airports.

Melbourne Airport operates on Commonwealth land. And, on this land, the Commonwealth has not established a safe process for managing PFAS contaminated soils — handling it, storing it and rendering it safe.

The Third Runway Major Development Plan includes no PFAS management plan either.

The MDP contains insufficient detail on the management of PFAS contaminated soils and other pollutants.

Melbourne Airport has provided no information to the public, particularly to those communities around the airport, on the impacts of the works to remove the PFAS contaminated soil — not the number, frequency or hours that trucks will be active.

Melbourne Airport proposes developing management processes for PFAS after the MDP has been approved, during the runway construction.